Nintendo 3DS™ owners soon will be able to play free downloadable demo versions of select games. Starting tomorrow, owners can go to the Nintendo eShop to download a free demo version of Resident Evil® Revelations from Capcom. A free demo version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games™ published by SEGA will launch on Jan. 26. The Nintendo eShop will be periodically updated with new game demos.

“The demo program allows Nintendo 3DS players to be among the first to test-drive select games,” said Tony Elison, Nintendo of America’s senior director and general manager of Network Business. “Players can try out new genres or series, often weeks before the full versions are available in stores.”

Additional demos coming soon include Rayman® Origins from Ubisoft and METAL GEAR SOLID® Snake Eater 3D from Konami Digital Entertainment. Specific dates and other games in the demo program will be announced at a later time.

Remember that Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.

This is another piece of interesting news stemming from Nintendo Direct: starting today, Japanese 3DS owners will be able to download some unreleased games and play the demo versions of those games! The titles are also one of the most highly anticipated, ranging from Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater, to Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy. You can probably imagine the massive file sizes that’ll have to be downloaded before players can play the game, but it’s nice seeing Nintendo finally bringing out retail demos for download!